The Federal Executive Council has ordered the immediate investigation of the recent past administration of Prof. Dibu Ojerinde as the Registrar and Chief Executive officer of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) over alleged massive fraud.
Minister of Finance Mrs Kemi Adeosun told State House correspondents, shortly after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, that the investigation of the agencies is in line with the government’s new realities of accountability and transparency.
According to Adeosun, the decision to probe the agencies became evident when JAMB, under Ojerinde’s leadership remitted a paltry N3 million to the Federal Government’s coffers in 2015 and that in 2017 alone, under a new leadership headed by Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, the agency, without prompting remitted a staggering N5 billion with a pledge to remit an additional N3 billion.
Adeosun said “Council felt this is unacceptable. They want to know where the moneys have been going in the past. It is not that their revenue drive is different from what they have now. So Council wants to know what has been happening to the moneys they have been generating. It is in line with this that Council has directed that we look into the books of these agency.”
The directive also includes the Nigerian Maritime Agency, NIMASA. Adeosun maintained that the “grand scale looting in the past in these agencies” must be looked into adding that following the fraudulent discoveries, the council has also mandated the investigation of other revenue generating agencies in the country to ascertain their level of transparency and accountability.